My trip to Japan

It started from an announcement in the weekly bulletin; followed by the presentation by the youth team from Tokyo during the GCYC.

The decision of going to serve in Tokyo was met with several obstacles along the way. Initially I was not comfortable going for the trip with no one that I know in the team but I felt a strong calling, so I took the step of faith and went for the trip.


The team was made up of 9 members, 8 of which are from the adult network. I didn’t feel too good about it at the start as I was worried that I could not mix well with the team. We only had the chance to meet up once before the trip and it was a mere 15 minutes briefing that the pastor-in-charge (Pastor James) gave to inform us about the basic information of the trip. Even then, not all the members from the team were present at the briefing.

A week before the trip, the travel agency made a mistake with our air tickets and I nearly could not go for the trip. But I prayed and ask God, what is it that He wants me to learn from this incident. The reply I got was from James 1:2-8, to take joy in whatever that happens and learn a lesson from it. In this lesson, I learnt to trust that if God wants to send you forth for a mission, things will just fall in place and let the Great Engineer do the work. Just believe!

On the first day, there were only 5 members since the rest will only be coming at the end of the day. We did prayer walk around the streets of Tokyo, noticing the teens loitering around in their uniforms. One of my team members explained to me that the teens will just stay out till late at night before they go home since they have nothing to do at home. Some of you might think that they are leading an aimless life, which I agree. As we did our prayer walk, we prayed for the salvation of the teens, for them to know the Lord, to find their purpose in life, instead of wasting their youth away on the streets.

On the second day when the full team was together, we went to the Yasukuni Shrine (the famous shrine where the formal Japan Prime Minister will visit yearly to pay respects to the dead from World War II and China will object violently to it) to do our prayer walk.

It was definitely a magnificent artifact. When I was there, I noticed something very interesting. One of the young priests, probably 18 years old, was heading from the right end of the shrine to the left, however when he walked past the altar, he stopped and bowed to the altar before moving on. I was quite surprised at his effort. Later I was told that the Japanese are perfectionist and very faithful people. They worship their god with such great respect. How many of us will walk past the altar in church and stop to speak a prayer? Deep in my heart I was praying that our Lord will shake the grounds of Japan and turn the faithful people of Japan to Him. Apart from this, a few of us had spiritual attacks while we were praying near the altar. One of the members experienced a choking feeling, another felt very cold while I felt dizzy. But we persisted with our prayers that the Japanese will recognize the true God and the land used to build the shrines will be converted into land for churches instead.

We even got a chance to visit one of the churches in Tokyo on Sunday. It was a very small and traditional church, with a membership of slightly less than 200 members. I was simply impressed by the standard of the choir, the flawless coordination and pitching of the choir, which once again demonstrated the perfectionist attitude of the Japanese.

We were treated to lunch and after lunch we even performed some magic tricks to entertain the crowd. From what we understand, this church has helped to sell 40 MOL tickets to their members. Praise the Lord!!

Apart from prayer walks and attending church service, we went round various locations of Tokyo to promote MOL. A couple of the team members were able to converse in Japanese so they were helping to relate to the people we approach. Some of us did simple magic tricks to entice the people, to get them interested in MOL and we blessed them with tickets to the performance. A lot of times, we were rejected by the people we approached but I did not lose heart. The more rejections I faced, the more positive I was, going round with a stronger will to invite the Japanese to the show. However, the Japanese were very truthful people. If they were not interested in the performance or they were not free to attend the performance, they rejected our tickets even when it was free. Thus, we believed strongly that those who took the tickets from us will definitely attend the performance.

May the Lord deposit a small faith in them during the performance. According to the team that was present during the period that MOL was held, there was only one evangelistic performance but with this single event, there was 149 salvations! Isn’t this impressive? Praise God.

On the whole, the trip was a great learning experience for me. It thought me not to lose heart and trust God to pave the road ahead. Also, I truly enjoyed the company of all my team members. We were even contacting each other after we returned to Singapore, telling how much we missed each other. We even suggested going to Tokyo to serve again for MOL 2007! Now some of us are even taking Japanese language classes organized by the Japanese Ministry so that we will be better equipped for the trip next year. Thank God for the wonderful team that He blessed me with. I learnt loads from them. I will definitely encourage all my brothers and sisters reading this entry to pray for a country that the Lord wants you to go and serve and take the step of faith to go and serve. It will definitely benefit you as much as it did for me. Praise God.

Benjamin
(Isaiah's 12)

Looking back at the Young Arrows Children's Day Celebrations

Praise be to God! He was there throughout the Young Arrows Children’s Day celebration we had on the 30th of September. Before and throughout the event, He was there as usual with His watchful eyes and His bountiful blessings to ensure the success of the celebrations.

Before it started, we gathered at Sylvia’s house at staggered timings to prepare food and rehearse a skit we had prepared for the kids.

When it was time to go to Mountbatten CC, it started to drizzle before it subsequently developed into a downpour! We also waited for a taxi but as the minutes ticked by and none came, we had a feeling of déjà vu since normally at that time and location, many taxis would be available.

When we finally got to the CC and prepared for the event, the downpour showed no sign of subsiding. Some of us began to doubt the number of children that will turn up.

But lo and behold! When it was quarter past two, parents and guardians with their kids in tow began to stream in. It soon progressed into a flood until we had over 50 kids in the homecraft room with newcomers comprising of three-quarters of the numbers. Soon, our supply of door gifts quickly diminished.

The miracles didn’t stop there. As young volunteers, we were all faced with the challenge of entertaining and getting the attention of kids intent on running around amidst the babbling and screaming of overly-excited kids adjusting to a strange new environment.


The situation remained under control as the ice-breakers was followed by the allocation of the kids into their respective groups for the games session. Divided into an assortment of game stations such as hop-skotch bunny, marbles and web soccer, the kids were visibly entertained as they were also encouraged to work as a team and be mindful of their own teammates.


Once the games ended, the children and their minders were treated to a feast with the likes of beehoon, sandwiches, nuggets and soft drinks.


The celebrations ended on a humourous note when several of the Young Arrows helpers performed the skit in which the kids were taught the importance of good manners in their speech when caught in sticky scenarios. For that short period of 15 minutes, these helpers became kids again as the children watched and laughed at the absurdity of their actions.

Eventually, the children left with their parents after our warm invitation to them to return on the following weekends with promises to spice up even more their Saturday afternoons.

Looking back at the event, no matter how much effort we put in against the resistance of the evil one, we would have come up short without the promises of God. But one thing is clear that we learnt from the celebrations: God loves children and He certainly loves people who have the heart for these children.

As such, we will keep praying for Young Arrows to expand and for more young volunteers to take up the ante of assisting with Young Arrows.

Written by:
Kenny Tan
(Josh’s 12)